Middle Earth Found: The Flying Bird Tea House

Insodong- Going off the beaten trail can lead you to the unexpected.
The best part about being abroad is expericencing things that would other wise be unheard of, if not illegal back home in the States. One of these things is drinking tea at a place called the Flying Bird Tea House, and just like the name implies, there are about 15 brightly colored canaries and tropical birds flying freely around the tea house. We drank tea off of glass tables with bowls of fish underneath while birds chirped and flew around us in a room full of plants, cushions, and asian furnishings. It was something out of the Lord of the Rings. (You knew that connection was coming!) I half expected to see Gandolf to walk in through the door and sit on a tree stump seat while one of the canaries purched itself on his shoulder.
The whole room was full of things, book shelfs with old, dusty pages of Korean characters and wooden chests that could contain who knows what. There were branches stuck in corners of the room that hung over the walls and ceiling making you feel like you drinking tea in a forest and not in a room. The birds flying through them only added to the effect. The bathroom did not even escape the middle-earth feel. The floor was inches full of black stones and potted plants with an open bowl of gold fish that you had to step over to use the loo. I am pointing to the bathroom companions there. There will be many more visits here. Not even Gandolf would have to phraphasize that.

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